Velocity-free task-space regulator for robot manipulators with external disturbances

This paper addresses the problem of task-space robust regulation of robot manipulators subject to external disturbances. A velocity-free control law is proposed by combining the internal model principle and the passivity-based output-feedback control approach. The developed output-feedback controller ensures not only asymptotic convergence of the regulation error but also suppression of unwanted external step/sinusoidal disturbances. The potential of the proposed method lies in its simplicity, intuitively appealing, and simple gain selection criteria for synthesis of multi-joint robot manipulator control systems.